A return to Lafayette Place
It’s shaping up to be a summer of camping! Due to limited NH State Parks opened and available, we again found ourselves booked back at Lafayette Place Campground in Franconia Notch State Park the weekend of June 19-21. This time, we had a coveted river site, #59. And while I enjoyed our second visit (within the span of three weeks) and our third visit overall (we had visited YEARS ago, back when we had a tent and one of the two-level river sites—#47, I think), I have to admit that the noise of Interstate 93 does detract from my overall, otherwise love for the park. If you want total peace and complete silence, Lafayette Place might not be your place; however, despite the rumblings of semis barreling down 93, it really is a fantastic location.
Our site was terrific; honestly, most of the river sites are, as they have “bonus” areas on the edge of the Pemigewasset River, which runs parallel to sites #45-66. We walked down the short trail leading to the river, found a few trees, and set up our hammocks. With the river babbling by our side, it was *almost* easy to forget that the highway was so close!
This weekend, I tried upping our camp food/campfire cooking game with a few new items:
fresh strawberry and cinnamon cream cheese tortilla rollup—made for an excellent breakfast
strawberry cobbler, made with fresh strawberries from Applecrest Farm Orchards in Hampton Falls, NH. I sliced the strawberries and mixed those with some sugar ahead of time, mixed the crumb topping ahead of time and packaged that in a jar, and chopped up the butter and bagged that before leaving as well. At the campsite, I assembled everything. The only thing I’d do differently is use a smaller foil baking pan, as I ended up folding the square one in half before putting it on the fire.
peanut butter and Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry jam rollup (on a Tumaro’s wrap)—my favorite go-to camp lunch
grilled cheese sandwiches in the pie irons (our favorite camping go-to dinner—we’re not fancy), featuring a taste test of two potato chips: UTZ dill pickle (I’ve been wanting to try those) and UTZ French onion. I picked up two mini bags from the gas station when we filled up and got ice, and sadly, I must admit that I was not a fan of the dill pickle. Oh well.
grilled hot dogs and chips (regular/original UTZ this time)
s’mores—this time, G experimented with Reese’s THINS, but I stuck with the original bit of Hershey’s on mine. I’m a s’mores purist.
Here’s my take on camp cooking: I’m never going to be a gourmet chef in the outdoors—hell, I’m not one indoors! I like good, simple food. And when we’re out in the woods, we allow ourselves some of the fun/unhealthy foods we don’t typically buy and eat at home—namely, potato chips (otherwise, I’d eat entire bags in single sittings). Sure, I envy the Pinterest pins featuring recipes that look complicated to cook in the kitchen, let alone an outdoor one, but that’s just not me/us. However, this I think we can all agree with, gourmet chef or not: everything really does taste better when 1) cooked outside (especially over a fire) and 2) eaten outside.
Okay, now for the highlight of this weekend’s trip: walking the Pemi Trail to the Basin, a fabulous place to spend some time on a hot, sunny day. Lafayette Place Campground is a great starting point for hiking, and our site was just one away from the trail that leads hikers from the parking lot and across a wooden bridge into the campground, where they can access two main trails: the trail to Lonesome Lake and the Pemi Trail, which runs parallel to the Pemigewasset River and stretches 3.6 miles, from Profile Lake to the Basin. Fun facts about the river: Pemigewasset is an Abenaki Indian word meaning “swift,” and the Pemi flows out of Profile Lake and then, about 60 miles south, its waters flow into the Merrimack River, which flows through southern New Hampshire and Massachusetts before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean (the Gulf of Maine) in Newburyport, Mass.
We started our walk through the buggy woods, passing (at a safe distance!) just a handful of other hikers who were heading toward us, having already made their way to the Basin and were now headed back. The trail was easy to follow and full of exposed roots and rocks, with a few muddy sections, so while the walk (about two miles) wasn’t really “hard,” we still needed to pay attention. The walk allowed for great viewing of the river and some picturesque photo spots along the way—and that water? Ah, soo refreshing to dip our hands in and splash our faces!
A few more steps, and we were at the Basin. While there were a few other groups of folks there—who had either walked from the parking lot, hiked in, or cycled the recreation path—the area didn’t seem “crowded” at all, which was great. People were definitely practicing social/physical distancing. Whoo-hoo!
According to the informational sign (see pic below), the Basin is a “large pothole” that’s 30 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep and dates back to 25,000 years ago, “when the Ice Age came to a close. Water flowing from the melting glacier that filled Franconia Notch eroded the solid granite bedrock.” Henry David Thoreau, in a trip to the White Mountains in 1839, wrote this of the Basin: “this pothole is perhaps the most remarkable curiosity of its kind in New England.” And it really is so cool—and while it looks so tempting and inviting, swimming is prohibited.
The walk through the woods to the Basin took a toll on G who, at this point, is severely anemic due to his declining kidney condition. Physical exertion is tough for him right now, so instead of taking the same route back, we opted to cross the bridge to the other side of the Pemigewasset River and follow the paved Franconia Notch Recreation Path back to the campsite, about another two miles. The recreation path runs 8.7 miles in length, and hits some of the main sites in the Notch: the Old Man of the Mountain Historic Site, Echo Lake, The Basin, and Flume Gorge. Walking the path was much more doable for him, and we didn’t have to worry about paying attention to the uneven terrain. Plus, we had a chance to check out the bike path—it’s gorgeous, and there were plenty of folks making use of it that day.
We made it back to the campsite, enjoyed lunch and snacks, and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hammocks and by the fire. By the next morning, another camping weekend had come and gone, just like that. Here’s to a summer full of more of them!